Article ID: CBB197700782

Normalization and the Search for Variation in the Human Genome (2020)

unapi

This essay reflects on the tension between standardization and the search for variation in the human genome. The stabilization of the human chromosome count in the 1920s was based on the consensus that “Whites,” “Negroes,” and “Japanese,” as well as women and men, had the same number of chromosomes. Yet the idea that there might be chromosomal differences between various groups of people was never quite abandoned. When in the mid-1950s the human chromosome number was revised from 48 to 46, the new count was tested in populations around the world. The description of the “normal human karyotype” that was negotiated in the 1960s was driven by the search for a standard against which the genetic variation revealed by the flurry of testing could be measured. And although the human genome project in the 1990s promised to provide the genetic blueprint that all humans shared, it has in fact led to an increased focus on the genetic variation that distinguishes the history, identity, and health outcomes of various human populations. Following concrete examples, this essay investigates the historically contingent quests that have been driving the search for common standards and variation, and the role Pacific and Indigenous populations have played in these endeavors.This essay is part of a special issue entitled Pacific Biologies: How Humans Become Genetic, edited by Warwick Anderson and M. Susan Lindee.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB197700782/

Similar Citations

Article James W. E. Lowe; (2016)
Normal development and experimental embryology: Edmund Beecher Wilson and Amphioxus (/isis/citation/CBB114945953/)

Article Richard McMahon; (2020)
Resurecting raciology? Genetic ethnology and pre-1945 anthropological race classification (/isis/citation/CBB086533805/)

Article Michael D. Edge; Noah A. Rosenberg; (2015)
Implications of the apportionment of human genetic diversity for the apportionment of human phenotypic diversity (/isis/citation/CBB310359830/)

Book Myles W. Jackson; (2015)
The Genealogy of a Gene: Patents, HIV/AIDS, and Race (/isis/citation/CBB193037134/)

Article Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther; Roberta L. Millstein; Rasmus Nielsen; (2015)
Introduction: Genomics and philosophy of race (/isis/citation/CBB320695569/)

Article Kent, Michael; (August 2013)
The importance of being Uros: Indigenous identity politics in the genomic age (/isis/citation/CBB539143812/)

Article TallBear, Kim; (August 2013)
Genomic articulations of indigeneity (/isis/citation/CBB368828568/)

Article Guido Barbujani; (2017)
What Genetics Has to Say about Racial Categorization of Humans (/isis/citation/CBB088477154/)

Article Ferreira, Luciane Ouriques; (2013)
A emergência da medicina tradicional indígena no campo das políticas públicas (/isis/citation/CBB001420639/)

Book TallBear, Kimberly; (2013)
Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science (/isis/citation/CBB001421027/)

Book Muehlmann, Shaylih; (2013)
Where the River Ends: Contested Indigeneity in the Mexican Colorado Delta (/isis/citation/CBB001420370/)

Article Garnelo, Luiza; (2011)
Aspectos socioculturais de vacinação em área indígena (/isis/citation/CBB001420515/)

Article Joan H. Fujimura; Ramya M. Rajagopalan; (2020)
Race, Ethnicity, Ancestry, and Genomics in Hawai‘i: Discourses and Practices (/isis/citation/CBB252611287/)

Article Warwick Anderson; M. Susan Lindee; (2020)
Pacific Biologies: How Humans Become Genetic (/isis/citation/CBB557669534/)

Article Reardon, Jenny; TallBear, Kim; (2013)
“Your DNA Is Our History”: Genomics, Anthropology, and the Construction of Whiteness as Property (/isis/citation/CBB001212640/)

Article Kowal, Emma; (August 2013)
Orphan DNA: Indigenous samples, ethical biovalue and postcolonial science (/isis/citation/CBB341833065/)

Thesis Radin, Joanna M.; (2012)
Life on Ice: Frozen Blood and Biological Variation in a Genomic Age, 1950--2010 (/isis/citation/CBB001560842/)

Book Bliss, Catherine; (2012)
Race Decoded: The Genomic Fight for Social Justice (/isis/citation/CBB001200118/)

Authors & Contributors
TallBear, Kimberly
Lowe, James W. E.
Nielsen, Rasmus
Edge, Michael D.
Kent, Michael
Barbujani, Guido
Concepts
Science and race
Indigenous peoples; indigeneity
Genomics
Variation (biology)
Human genetics
DNA; RNA
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
United States
Australia
Colorado River (North America)
Peru
New Guinea
Hawaii (U.S.)
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
Human Genome Project
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment